Dave Brubeck Memorial Concert

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. The Saratoga Choral Festival will present a memorial concert for Dave Brubeck at the SPA LITTLE THEATER on Sunday, July 28th, at 3:00 p.m. Featured on the program will be his rarely heard choral music for chorus, orchestra and jazz combo including the popular Pange Lingua variations, and the unpublishedCanticles of Mary. The jazz combo accompanying the ensemble is under the direction of jazz pianist and Brubeck protégée Eldar Djangirov. They will also play the Brubeck hitTake Five and more.

Jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck passed away on December 5, 2012, one day before his 92nd birthday. He is best known for the legendary song “Take Five” and the album “Time Out” which was the first jazz album to sell over a million copies, but he also wrote numerous outstanding choral works. His honors include the Presidential Medal of the Arts and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He was a Kennedy Center honoree in 2009.

Praised as “a genius beyond most young people I've heard” by Brubeck, Eldar Djangriov’s talents have garnered him Grammy nominations 2008 for his album “Re-imagination)and appearances in concert halls ranging from the Hollywood Bowl to Carnegie Hall. Downbeat magazine stated, "His command of his instrument is beyond staggering." For more information go to www.eldarmusic.com.

The Saratoga Choral Festival began in the summer of 2001. Previous seasons have featured the requiems by Fauré, Duruflé, and Mozart (repeated in October 2001 as a benefit for the Red Cross and victims of 9/11), Bach’s Magnificat (featuring members of the Philadelphia Orchestra), Haydn’s Lord NelsonMass, Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem, Handel’s Dixit Dominus, Rutter Gloria, Mozart’s Coronation Mass, a premiere of a new edition of Gretchaninov’s Liturgia Domestica, the Bloch Sacred Service with Cantor Robert Abelson in 2011 and the music of Karl Jenkins in 2012. In August of 2004, the chorus finally realized its dream of performing with the Philadelphia orchestra in a critically acclaimed performance of the Mahler 3rd Symphony with the Harlem Boys Choir under the direction of Charles Dutoit at SPAC. This is the eighth season of performances at the Little Theater located in the heart of SPA State Park. The Festival joins the list of illustrious performances presented there during the summer such as Opera Saratoga and the Saratoga Chamber Music Festival.

Tickets at $30 each are available at the SPAC Box office, at the door, or ONLINE NOW at www.saratogachoralfest.org. Come early and take advantage of a special Gideon Putnam brunch and concert package all for $50! The phone number for reservations (recommended) and information is (518)-791-0185.